Jeep Crushed During Storm; Rain Tapering Off In Time For Thanksgiving

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CITRUS HEIGHTS (CBS13) – Light rain continued to fall Wednesday morning from a storm that started Tuesday night, but the sun was expected to be out by Wednedsay afternoon and a dry Thanksgiving Day is in the forecast.

The soggy conditions led to a large oak tree being uprooted in Citrus Heights on Wednesday morning. No one was injured when the tree fell in front of a mobile home at 7700 Lauppe Lane, but a Jeep parked in the driveway was crushed.

A resident at the home told CBS13 the Jeep was intended to be passed down to his oldest son.

“Oh I did, I put a lot of money into that Jeep,” Tommy Hill said. “It could have been a lot worse. I’m just glad everything is good. It missed everything but my Jeep.”

Hill said he was inside his mobile home with his father and heard what he thought was thunder when the tree fell down. The impact crushed the roll cage and flattened the Jeep’s tires.

“We wouldn’t have made it,” son Toby said.”We wouldn’t be talking right now. We’d be being pulled out of that Jeep.”

Neighbor Lilian Powers came out to snap some pictures of the tree that also crushed part of her mobile home park’s community center.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before, not since I’ve been here,” she said.

Now she’s worried about the trees at her home.

“I think about it all the time when the wind is blowing and it’s raining real hard,” she said.

The tree fell about 7 a.m., normally the time the family gets in it for a daily breakfast run. Toby is out of a nice ride, but he’s not complaining.

“Giving thanks for sure, happy to be alive, happy nothing happened to my grandpa and my dad,” he said.

Shower activity continued Wednesday morning as the cold front moved across Northern California, with light to moderate rain in the valley and mountains and snow falling above 7,000 feet, according to the National Weather Service. Most areas in the Sacramento region got about a half-inch or so of rain over a 24-hour period, with a couple inches falling in the foothills.

High winds forced Heavenly Ski Resort to close for the day Wednesday but the resort said it would be back open for Thanksgiving. Other Tahoe resorts operating on Thanksgiving include Boreal, Northstar, Squaw Valley, Kirkwood, Sugar Bowl and Sierra-at-Tahoe, which decided to open ahead of schedule after early snowfall.

Precipitation will taper off across the region later Wednesday with dry weather returning for Thanksgiving and into the weekend, with highs in the mid 60s. Overnight lows will be in the low 40s. Areas of night and morning valley fog will be possible.